Since 1975 Bruce Springsteen has been popular never veering far from his core sound and message despite four decades of constantly changing music trends.
Recently Bruce was interviewed in anticipation of his new March 6th album. He provided a unique viewpoint on his own music:
"Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire."
That's terrific. And insightful. Check out some lyrics...
Born To Run--1975
The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight but there's no place left to hide
Together wendy well live with the sadness
Ill love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don't know when were gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run
Glory Days--1985
Well there's a girl that lives up the block
back in school she could turn all the boy's heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by
and have a few drinks after she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
she says when she feels like crying
she starts laughing thinking about
The Rising--2002
Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
In each case: pessimism and optimism together.
And so timely. After all, what defined pessimism and optimism during the eighties was different than what defines pessimism and optimism today.
What's interesting to note is that Springsteen has remained consistently relevant because he stayed centered on the core message which was only possible by staying close to what the current definitions of the pillars were: in this case, pessimism and optimism.
Which means that it's possible to combine amazingly opposite things together and create something unique if one stays incredibly close to the pillars.
Target does this: stick close to high-fashion (Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular), live always in the everyday (Black Friday in July) and then keep smashing them together...
(2011 sales at Target stores typically increased between 2.5% - 6.5% every month.)
If the opposite ideas are dynamic enough, one can combine all sorts of stuff.